1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic flue fire controllers and more specifically to temperature responsive flue fire extinguishers.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Many homes and buildings have wood stoves, fireplaces and other such combustion units which are used for heating purposes or aesthetic purposes and which include flue pipes for the exhaust of combustion gases and by-products. Oftentimes the combustion process in the stove or fireplace is not complete and combustible materials are carried up the flue pipe along with the combustion gases. These combustible materials may be deposited on the interior walls of the flue pipe and after some period of time a sufficient amount of these materials are built-up on the flue pipe wall creating a fire hazard. If these combustible materials are not cleaned from the flue pipe walls, they can ignite causing a fire within the flue pipe itself which may result in the igniting of a portion of the building structure due to the close proximity of the structure with the flue pipe, for instance when the flue pipe passes through a wall or passes up between walls.
There generally is no protection provided for such flue fires and they often ignite the surrounding building materials before they extinguish themselves. Therefore, it would be a desirable improvement and advancement to provide a device which could automatically sense such a flue fire and extinguish it before it caused the building structure to ignite.